Will Windows 8 Save PC Sales? Tracking 22 Years Of Windows Releases

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According to data jointly released by analysts at IDC and brokerage firm Wachovia Capital Markets, the release of Windows 3.0 did correlate with a jump in PC sales; shipments rose from about 5 million during the third quarter of 1990 to about 6 million in the fourth quarter of that year, after the release of the new OS.

BBC News correspondent Mark Ward pegged Windows 3.0 and 3.1 as the first of Microsoft's Windows releases to "win huge worldwide success," and believed they were the first operating systems ever to make PCs a serious contender to Apple's Macs.

Windows 3.0 was also the first software release in years that required many users to upgrade their hardware to include more memory capacity, InfoWorld reported in a 1990 article, which could have accounted for the spike in overall PC sales.